It’s a real shame sometimes, the way you see some promising features treated in this business of combing through forgotten comics pages of long ago. Bonney Royal’s Clarence Culpepper is one such strip. It lasted a mere five weeks, hardly given a chance at all (though, to be fair, I suppose a full page debut in the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune was no small deal). The art is pleasant and the Chicago setting fun. My efforts to locate any subsequent work in the funnies from Bonney Royal have been unsuccessful. A pity.

For three weeks in the fall of 1904, the cartoonist Jarrant (?) treated the world to the sleepy-time adventures of Dreamy Dave. That should have been the end of the story, but for some inexplicable reason, the prolific Charles Wellington decided to resurrect the feature in the spring of 1905. Wellington took Dave out of the bedroom, away from naps, and cursed him with living daydreams that have the power to overtake him at any given time. Once the boy nods off, watch out because chaos is about to ensue in the form of lazy gags and racial stereotypes. Dreamy Dave would live out this waking nightmare for a few more months, before finally drifting off for good in June of 1905. We have most of the strips, but are missing a few of the final outings…I guess for now we can only dream of what laughs they might contain.

Today we present further prehistoric antics from the great Johnny Gruelle in Before the Flood. If you liked The Flintstones but thought “the modern stone age” was really better suited for some light political satire, this one should be right up your alley.